Documenting a weekend of documentary movies

A friend of mine treats downtown the same way many Columbians think of Kansas: You’d go there if wild horses (a cattle prod, court mandate, love of a good woman or man) forced you. Something about the parking, he says, irks his suburban soul.

Too bad. He’s missing so much.

The parking spaces should be full this weekend. The True/False Film Festival is back, bringing big crowds, films and filmmakers with it. Can it really be the fifth year?

The Vox team pulled together an excellent opener to the festival in this week’s edition.

As Shannon Jones and Kyle Puetz point out, the organizers have gone from begging for digital celluloid to turning away submissions.

Not too bad for Our Fair Town.

I doubt any paparazzi will be hanging out, but Vox and Missourian staffers are blanketing the events. Here’s a sneak peak at some of the coverage plans: Vox writers will review films and cover the after-screening discussion, then post them on a blog at voxmagazine.com/blogs/truefalse2008/. Missourian reporters will be going to parties (tough assignment, eh?) with notebooks and cameras in hand. At least two Vox journalists have turned into volunteers and will describe the experience.

Is True/False worth all the attention? You bet. The votes were cast long before this year: This festival is a big deal.

Another group will be out in force covering the festival: you. I hope you’ll take along your own camera, or jot down some recollections of the experience, and send them along to MyMissourian.com. It’s the place where Columbians can share everything from news from their neighborhoods to recipes and church announcements.

Unfortunately, there were some bad, nefarious, larcenous people out there who wormed their way into the server for the Web site. They used it to send out a bunch of spam, so the technical folk had to shut MyMissourian.com down. It’s back up, in a somewhat truncated form, but it should be able to receive your submissions from True/False.

Eventually, MyMissourian.com content will fold more neatly into the ColumbiaMissourian.com site. But that’s for another letter.

In the meantime, go ahead and catch a film this weekend. I think there are even a few good films playing outside The District.